AMERICAN  PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
489 
[The  address  favors  the  adoption  of  decimal  weights,  and  the  abolition 
of  the  regulation  in  the  Custom-house,  requiring  metrical  weights  to  be 
converted  into  avoirdupois  before  fixing  the  duties,  be  urged.  Also  that 
their  adoption  be  urged  at  the  next  decennial  revision  of  the  Pharma- 
copoeia. 
The  address  advocates  the  introduction  and  culture  of  foreign  drugs 
and  articles  when  suited  to  our  soil  and  climate,  such  as  the  olive,  liquor- 
ice, lemons,  and  even  rhubarb  and  opium;  and  recommends  the  dissemi- 
nation of  accurate  information  on  these  points  as  contributions  to  the  in- 
dustrial advancement  of  our  country.] 
Before  closing,  I  would  address  you  according  to  my  convictions  on 
the  true  plan,  to  use  the  words  of  our  Constitution,  "  of  improving  the 
science  and  art  of  pharmacy,  of  regulating  the  system  of  apprenticeship, 
and  of  suppressing  empiricism"  with  any  degree  of  success, — and  that  is 
by  professional  instruction.  It  will  require  the  whole  influence  of  every 
member  to  further  the  plan  proposed,  or  a  better  one.  It  will  take  a  long 
time,  and  require  hard  work.  We  must  commence  by  organizing  our 
forces.  It  would  be  necessary  to  appoint  "  a  central  committee  on  laws 
and  colleges,"  and  all  the  members  in  each  State  should  band  themselves 
together  and  constitute  "  sub-committees "  for  their  respective  States. 
The  general  committee  should  publish  a  full  collection  of  all  the  existing 
State  laws  bearing  on  the  subject,  together  with  coviments,  followed  by 
an  account  of  kindred  laws  in  Great  Britain,  especially  those  lately  en- 
acted. They  will  issue  instructions  as  far  as  necessary,  and  drafts  of  the 
proposed  laws  for  the  use  of  the  sub-committees.  Every  member  should, 
by  explanation  and  by  all  proper  arguments,  endeavor  to  enlist  the 
influence  of  every  prominent  citizen  he  can  reach, — the  State  representa- 
tives, the  ministers,  the  lawyers,  the  physicians,  his  customers,  and  the 
editors, — so  as  to  bring  the  legislature  and  executive  of  each  State  over 
to  our  views,  and  never  cease  till  we  have  obtained  the  requisite  laws, 
and  founded  a  College  of  Pharmacy  in  each  State.  It  was  by  such  means 
that  we  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  drug  law  of  1848,  when  the  country 
was  much  less  prepared  for  such  a  step  than  now. 
[The  address  refers  to  the  New  York  College  of  Pharmacy,  and  the 
active  part  it  took  to  procure  the  law  of  1848  ;  and  refers  to  the  existing 
law  limited  to  New  York  city,  passed  in  1839  (and  which  has  always  been 
a  dead  letter),  which  forbade  any  person  to  commence  business  as  an 
apothecary  after  1839  unless  furnished  with  a  diploma  by  the  College  of 
Pharmacy,  under  a  penalty  of  $50,  payable  to  the  N.  Y.  Dispensary.] 
It  is  contemplated,  in  the  scheme  I  have  suggested,  that  the  central 
committee  on  laws  and  colleges,  through  the  State  sub-committees,  be 
the  means  of  obtaining  the  signatures  to  the  petitions  that  the  committee 
on  the  tariff  or  other  committees  might  require  in  memorializing  Con- 
gress; and  if  our  seven  hundred  members  will  only  reach  the  Congress- 
